Transcript: David Ortiz’s opening comments

The following is a transcript of David Ortiz’s opening comments at today’s press conference, courtesy of the Globe’s Chris Estrada:

All right. You guys ready? You guys know that I got my Spanish/Dominican accent, so if there’s something that you guys misunderstand, don’t be afraid to feed me back and I can clear things up.

I find out last Thursday that I was on the list and right away, I put myself in contact with the union to get more information about this list and they confirmed that the newspaper came out and that I was on the list. I was trying to get more information about why I’m on the list and I don’t know why; nobody can tell me why I’m on the list. You know, I consider myself one of the guys that — I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter. Legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter. But I never buy a steroid or use the steroids.

I was one of the guys that I kind of got educated more about the situation when the [indistinguishable] came out and I started to put more attention to it. But I never thought that buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody’s feelings and that happened. And I’m sorry about that. But that wasn’t my case, my situation.

One of the things that I want to talk about is that there was a misunderstanding about my statement when I first talked about meeting with the union back in 2004. I did meet with Michael [Weiner] in 2004, but I was never told that I tested positive for steroids. We had this five-minute meeting and it was a little confusing, but I was never told that I tested positive for steroids, so as this thing was going on — I don’t know how I had no idea about this going on now. I never put too much attention to it.

That’s why when I had my statement, I talk to you guys, that I was kind of surprised about the news, because I wasn’t too much involved with it. But like I say, I’m not here to make any excuses or anything. I used a lot of supplements and vitamins and even I have companies sending me supplements and things back then, but I never used or bought any steroids.

I’m the kind of guy that I want to apologize to the fans for the distraction, my teammates, our manager. We’re going through a situation right now. This past week has been a nightmare to me, because I’m the kind of guy that I look forward to — I think about the fans every day. I don’t think this game could have been as good as it is without the fans. I’m a guy that people look at not only as the guy that hits the ball. I try to do things the right way. Your reputation, sometimes, when situations like this are going on, people get kind of confused.

This past week has been a really major distraction and I want to apologize to fans, my teammates, our team’s owners and everybody for that situation.